This is how dominant the Stanford men's tennis team is: Paul Goldstein is a senior, and he has never not played for an NCAA champion. Three years, three titles.

"People say, 'Let someone else have a chance' and 'It probably doesn't mean as much to you,' " said Goldstein. "But that's not true. I know the effort it took to win each one. And I'm not getting tired of it at all."

But Stanford's nonstop success leaves little mystery in the college game, and it's more of the same this season: Going into today's dual match at home against Cal, the Cardinal are undefeated and ranked, as usual, No. 1.

Furthermore:

-- Halfway through the dual-match season, Stanford has lost just one singles match. The team has won 64 singles matches.

-- In dual-match doubles, the school is 27-2.

-- At the prestigious National Team Indoors tournament last weekend at the University of Kentucky, the Cardinal dropped just one match, going 30-1 in beating Boise State, LSU, Georgia and Illinois.

-- Stanford has won 24 dual matches at home as well as 24 consecutive dual matches overall.

But when the Cardinal established a school-record streak of 33 dual-match wins at home in 1899- 1990, the team that ended it was Cal. And at 6-0, the Bears are off to their best start since 1989.

"We snapped their streak last time -- and we

were happy to do it for them," Cal coach Peter Wright said. "But this year's Stanford team is an improvement on last year's national championship team, and that's a scary thought."

Stanford lost only one player off of last year's team, as Grant Elliott graduated. But the Cardinal added a number of impressive freshmen, including former national team member Alex Kim.

Wolters, a junior from San Jose, played at No. 1 most of last season, while Goldstein was out with a stress fracture. He compiled a 22-3 record in the top spot and was named co-Pac-10 Player of the Year.

Bob Bryan was also co-Pac-10 Player of the Year, as a freshman, and he won the Pac-10 individual championship. Mike Bryan, his identical twin, was hampered by tendinitis much of last season, but is currently No. 2 in the collegiate rankings, highest on the team.

Together, the Bryans are No. 2 in the nation in doubles, with a 16-2 overall record.

"The Bryans are really exciting to watch," Stanford coach Dick Gould said. "Bob is left-handed and Mike is right-handed and they bring an incredible enthusiasm to the court. They're positively animated -- and they very well could be the next Davis Cup doubles team."

The Bryans, who are from Camarillo, are coached by their parents, Wayne and Kathy. Kathy Bryan, formerly Kathy Blake, was ranked in the top 20 professionally after a fine career at USC; Wayne Bryan played tennis at UC Santa Barbara.

Goldstein, who is fully recovered from his foot injury, took off the fall quarter in order to play in satellite tournaments; he's still on track to graduate in June with a degree in human biology. He's the second-highest ranked amateur in the world rankings, somewhere in the high 200s.

He's also the only player ever to win the boys 16 national championship and the boys 18 national championship twice. With Stanford's run of titles, that makes six national championships in a row for Goldstein.

"Wherever Paul goes, he breeds winning," Gould said.

But he's not even the best- known recent graduate of his high school. The Rockville, Md., native attended Sidwell Friends in Washington, the alma mater of fellow Stanford student Chelsea Clinton.

"She follows me wherever I go," Goldstein joked.

Now the quest for national championship No. 4 is under way; no team in NCAA history has won four in a row using the current format. Stanford has won three in a row once before, 1988-90; only one other team, USC, has won the NCAA championship in the 90s.

And Gould believes this might be his best group ever.

"This is a remarkable team, and I'm usually pretty conservative," Gould said. "We'll probably lose a match somewhere, and Cal will give us a good fight; they're very scrappy.

"But this team is very special. It will be interesting to see where we go -- and I like where we are right now. Anyone who misses this team will miss probably one of the best college teams of all time."